A movement built on Community
The first event that Save The Crew ever threw was one that galvanized the entire movement. Mere days after learning of the plan to relocate the team, some of the key figures of the leadership group held a rally on the steps of Columbus City Hall. They expected maybe a hundred people. Instead thousands showed up.
From the genesis of Save The Crew, events and experiences were crucial to helping the public feel engagement, kinship, and connection to the bigger fight. In fact, one of the most common suggestions we heard when things were slow or seemed stagnant was “Why don’t you guys have another rally?”
We never did have another rally, but it was clear that there was a real desire to engage with the Save The Crew brand in real life. There was a need to bring people together to connect over their shared beliefs and willingness to stand up for this cause.
Having been responsible for all event planning for a local alt-weekly as the head of marketing in a past life, I was able to conceptualize and help manage how Save The Crew could have presence at high profile events around Columbus and the central Ohio region in order to spread our message outside of the existing audience.
There were a few different types of events and real-life experiences coordinated by Save The Crew. Without a doubt, one of the most successful and impactful things we did was put our money where our mission statement was: we showed that soccer is part of the community. As such, we had many philanthropic events and volunteer opportunities where our fan base would do good in the community. Food and clothing drives, free youth soccer clinics, and a ticket donation program that sent underprivileged citizens of Columbus to what was often their first Crew game were all initiatives under a program called Community Assist.
Movement Update Events
While we never had a full-scale rally after the first one, we did have a couple “State-of-Save The Crew” events at a local brewery. One of them was just after the season in 2017 as a way to keep momentum going and keep people engaged in the offseason.
The second such event was a One Year Anniversary of the Save The Crew movement with a Crew away game watch party afterwards. It served as a retrospective of all we’d accomplished and featured a very special guest: the first appearance in front of fans made by our prospective new owner, Dr. Peter Edwards Jr. Needless to say, this went over pretty well to a packed beer garden of fans.
Festivals and Public Events
From a marketing standpoint, we also used presence at events and festivals to get the word out about our current initiatives and our broader story about our fight to save the Crew. The Columbus Taco Fest, Festival Latino, the Arts Fest, the Greek Festival and the Italian Festival were all appreciative of our grassroots struggle and accommodated our presence. I worked with our volunteer coordinator team to ensure that every volunteer who was staffing a tent was fully briefed and knew the script for that particular event and that they had answers to frequently asked questions about Save The Crew.
Partnerships and Promotional Appearances
We also partnered with local and regional professional soccer teams to gain access to their fanbases as well. The Columbus Eagles, the professional women’s team in Columbus partnered with us on multiple occasions to put on free youth soccer clinics as well as come have us speak during their spring home opener. Both the Eagles and Cleveland SC, a semi-professional team from northwest Ohio partnered with us to hold Save The Crew Night, a promotional appearance that I created to allow fans and players alike to feel connected to Save The Crew as a broader Ohio soccer community. For each of these events, we gave the players extremely limited edition Save The Crew t-shirts to wear as pre-match jerseys. They would warm up in them as the stadium announcer informed fans that they could win one of the jerseys in our auction. Many players even signed the shirt that they wore.
Save The Crew would send a promo team that I would brief and manage on-site to get the word out about our mission and current initiatives, like the Project 2019 Ticket Pledge, and also to sell raffle tickets to win the player-worn, limited run t-shirts. The event was always a huge hit with fans and our partners alike as our co-promotion around the event drove much higher ticket sales.
The Columbus Legends Reunion Match
The most popular event Save The Crew was involved with started on a whim, on Twitter. When Kyle Martino, former Columbus Crew player and currently the only American host of NBC’s English Premier League coverage, had to watch this saga unfold from afar he felt he wanted to do something to show solidarity with the fans who were possibly losing a storied franchise in American soccer history.
Kyle floated the idea for a reunion of former players at some point in the 2018 season, just in case it would be the last one. What started as a half-hearted idea galvanized the fanbase and the franchise’s former players. There was no way they couldn’t do it now.
Most of the planning would fall on Dante Washington, one of the former Crew players who still lived in Columbus. Dante of course reached out to us for as much help as we could offer. We offered our event planning expertise as well as some connections to the sports commission, who was interested in helping.
What we helped him put together was a full-on “alumni match” in the form of a pickup game on the grounds of the Ohio History Connection, a museum right next to Mapfre Stadium where the Crew plays. The biggest names in club history returned for a wet morning of pickup soccer on a messy, hilly, poor excuse for a field. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen former US National Team legends and some of the most famous American TV pundits attempting slide tackles and bicycle kicks at 40+.
One bonus was that when this event happened, it had already been announced that the team was most likely going to be sold to new owners who’d keep the Crew in Columbus. Our goodbye match was now a celebration. And one that called for documentation.
I directed a full camera crew to document the event. Between 4 and 5 cameras were shooting at all times, including drone footage. I conducted interviews with the players who were eager to share what the team means to them and their life. Save The Crew has the footage which is just waiting to be used to promote a next year’s rematch.
Click each topic below for a snapshot of my role with Save The Crew
LEADERSHIP
• Organizational consulting
• Creative vendor procurement & partnership
MESSAGE STRATEGY & BRANDING
• Messaging & media response
• Brand ethos
• Consensus building across sectors and audiences
CREATIVE DIRECTION, CONTENT DEVELOPMENT, & ADVERTISING
• Creative media
• Traditional media campaigns
• Social media campaigns
MARKETING & EXPERIENCE ACTIVATIONS
• Events & Appearances
• Community & Organizational Partnerships